noun

• 1A timing device with two connected glass bulbs containing sand that takes an hour to pass from the upper to the lower bulb.

  ‘The invention of timekeeping devices - hourglasses, water clocks, graduated tapers - made it possible for early civilized people to begin to control and standardize the units of time, and in doing so to coordinate their lives.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘When you run out of paper or the words you write are jumbled up, think of the hourglass passing sand from the top to the bottom.’
  • ‘The last sands of the hourglass passed through and it turned over, beginning again.’
  • ‘The Four Horsemen, whose appearance, experts believe, marks the imminence of a major conflict, are armed with state-of-the-art swords, scythes and hourglasses, as well as a fully operational last trumpet.’
  • ‘By ‘them’ we mean creations inspired by such everyday objects as bottle gourds, pipettes and pumpkins, not to mention hourglasses and Japanese dining tables.’
  • ‘Their lives are represented by the flows of hourglasses.’
  • ‘An expensive chronometer would help here, but one or more well-made hourglasses will also do just fine.’
  • ‘Using simple blocks with shapes like cubes or hourglasses, researchers have found ways to construct strong panels with no fasteners securing most of the blocks.’
  • ‘We have also projected out, using black hourglasses, a possible path for the propensity to hold U.S. currency.’
  • ‘They were staring down in horror, still clutching the hourglasses.’
  • ‘Like sands through the hourglass, these are the stars of our lives.’
  • ‘Long may the days of our lives run like sand through her hourglass.’
  • ‘But the sand in which you are drawing the line is the sand of the hourglass.’
  • ‘Like sand through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives.’
  • ‘Note the inverted hearts, the tree, the anchor, and the sand glass or hourglass.’
  • ‘It went down brilliantly until the day my friend thumped the hourglass - and sand began to trickle through.’
  • ‘I'm constantly aware of the ticking of the clock and at any point in the day I can hear the gentle hiss of the sand in the hourglass.’
  • ‘Let them slip away like the fine sand in an hourglass, one or many at a time, till there remains nothing.’
  • ‘At about one o'clock I was still awake, sitting patiently with the lights off, watching the gold sand in the hourglass trickling with an almost painful laziness.’
  • ‘It suddenly melted away like sand in an hourglass.’

  1. 1.1as modifier Shaped like an hourglass.
     ‘her hourglass figure’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Often these ideals take the form of ridiculously unfeasible forms with unhealthily exaggerated hourglass figures.’
     • ‘She's still a girl, but she's got that hourglass figure, and she really enhances it.’
     • ‘If you are blessed with a curvy, hourglass figure, then a corset or basque will certainly make the most of your assets.’
     • ‘She has brown hair, brown eyes, is about medium height, and a not quite hourglass figure.’
     • ‘The actress admitted dressing to flatter her voluptuous figure and hourglass curves is by no means an easy task.’